The results support the view that executive dysfunction in PCD is secondary to the disrupting effects of the symptoms. Treatment with BTX alleviates the symptoms and, consequently, improves sustained attention.

Several studies have documented that emotional arousal may enhance long-term memory. This is an adaptation of a paradigm previously used in North American and European samples in investigations of the influence of emotion on long-term retention. A sample of 46 healthy adults of high and low educational levels watched a slide presentation of stories. A randomly assigned group watched a story with an arousing content and another group watched a neutral story. The stories were matched for structure and comprehensibility and the set and order of the 11 slides were the same in both conditions. Immediately after viewing the slide presentation, the participants were asked to rate the emotionality of the narrative. The arousing narrative was rated as being more emotional than the neutral narrative (t (44) = -3.6, P<0.001). Ten days later subjects were asked to remember the story and answer a multiple-choice questionnaire about it. The subjects who watched the arousing story had higher scores in the free recall measure (t (44) = -2.59, P<0.01). There were no differences between groups in the multiple-choice test of recognition memory (t (44) = 0.26). These findings confirm that an emotional arousing content enhances longterm declarative memory and indicate the possibility of applying this instrument to clinical samples of various cultural backgrounds. Correspondence

The Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure (ROCF) is probably one of the most popular measurement instruments of visuoconstructional abilities and nonverbal memory. It is frequently part of neuropsychological test protocols in epilepsy surgery centers. In this study we compared the traditional scoring system of the ROCF developed by Taylor (1998) with a qualitative system that assesses spatial-relational errors devised by Loring et al. [Loring, D. W., Lee, G. P., & Meador, K. J. (1988). Revising the Rey-Osterrieth: Rating right hemisphere recall. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, 3, 239-247] in a sample of left and right temporal lobe epilepsy patients undergoing pre-surgical evaluation. We investigated whether the relational-spatial scoring system would be more sensitive to right-sided memory deficits than the traditional Taylor version. There was no difference in the copy phase of the ROCF between the clinical and control groups. There was a significant difference between the control and the clinical groups when the 30-min delayed recall drawings were scored with the Taylor system. However, this system failed to find differences between left and right temporal lobe epileptic patients. On the other hand, comparisons with the qualitative scoring criteria used by Loring et al. [Loring, D. W., Lee, G. P., & Meador, K. J. (1988). Revising the Rey-Osterrieth: Rating right hemisphere recall. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, 3, 239-247] revealed that right temporal lobe patients made more spatial-relational errors than patients with left-sided foci. Frequency distribution of these scores for all the three groups and sensitivity and specificity to correctly classify right temporal lobe patients are presented. This investigation demonstrated that applying qualitative, material-specific scoring criteria improves temporal lobe epilepsy presurgical protocols.

No abstract

Nesta revisão abordamos o sistema de memória autobiográfica como um processo de rememoração subjetiva graças à ativação de um substrato neural próprio para esta qualidade mnemônica. A rememoração autobiográfica recruta vias corticais extensas tendo como ponto de convergência a região frontal e suas interconexões, culminando com a área orbitofrontal. Trata-se de um processamento neural complexo capaz de integrar diferentes aspectos da evocação, tais como auto-identidade, controle, seletividade e emoção. Analisamos também a noção de amnésia orgânica e amnésia funcional com base em achados recentes sobre os efeitos do estresse no cérebro. Dentre estas evidências, destacam-se as alterações morfológicas e neuroquímicas no cérebro produzidas por estímulos estressantes assim como o alívio destes efeitos através da psicoterapia. Este conhecimento representa um avanço considerável nos conceitos de psicopatologia, abrindo caminhos para a compreensão das bases neurais da personalidade.